Sunday Wisdom

 

“Be slow to speak, and only after having first listened quietly, so that you may understand the meaning, leanings, and wishes of those who do speak. Thus you will better know when to speak and when to be silent.” –Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556), Spanish Catholic priest and theologian

Monday Morning

       

Coffee on the porch with a twist of smoke and ash

Look who is here for a short visit to help Gammie with more wood stacking chores.

And on the back porch the weather is cool with a touch 

of  ash and smoke

Greetings and beautiful blue sky’s with big puffy clouds .  My brother in law is with his Mama in her home in Mexico. She and her late husband have dual citizenship and her son is helping her with some items there.

On the fire front 212,744 acres gone as of last night. 10% containment. The heavy smoke and clouds of the last week have kept the spread of the fire suppressed but with the winds expected today that could change. So we are living with a double edged sword.  The air gets better the fire could become more aggressive. 

Miss. Claire and I will brave the great outdoors and see what we can get done in her short time here. 

PS

For anyone who wants very accurate information here is a link to the CalFire incident page. I hope I takes you directly to Creek Fire our current fire. 

https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/9/4/creek-fire/

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Welcome September Or Maybe Not

Lookie there last post end of August and we are now staring the last three months and twenty days of 2020 smack in the keister. And allow me to be the first to say so long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen ,good night.  Ok I may be jumping the gun but no more than whoever it was on new years day this said "Wow , 2020 already? What could possibly go wrong?" I am sure they didn't realize probably due to heavy imbibing  too much adult beverage that in that brief moment they changed the history of the world and off we went.

Top of my post this wonderful excessively smoke filled ash laden day is a updated fire report. And again I will repeat "better to have the smoke than the fire."  However after over 30 days of this going on my throat is begging for some clean air. The Creek fire as it has come to be known by Cal Fire is another amazing monster. It had a meager beginning in the forest by Big Creek on Friday September 4th  within 48 hours it had become a raging , roaring inferno of 135,300 acres and today currently is 5 days active now in two counties  Fresno (starter county) and Madera.  The fire has now consumed 175,893 acres with 0% containment. Losing 60 residences and damaging 6.  Mixed commercial/residential 0 damaged with 277 destroyed. Nonresidential commercial 2 damaged 4 destroyed. Minor structures 1 damaged and 20 destroyed. 

                                        View this morning about 7 AM from my front porch.

Now why am I sharing all this less than pleasant news? I am not jumping on the drama rama team . Two fold because this is my life and life is what we post about. If  the fire goes into Madera county physically , right now they have called mandatory evacuations as a precaution, then  we are the next county in its line . Also because I feel that as a whole the media has done such a poor job of becoming the new Facebook that often the information we get sounds more like the National Inquirer than fact. Lastly because this year the number of wildfires is so unprecedented that out of 28 national forest in this state 18 of them are involved and the forest service recently closed the remaining 10 parks to protect them. The state I have lived in my entire life is going up in flames. And by the way remember the picturesque town of Paradise? Without going into rehashing the details of the 2018 fire is again in the line of fire from the Bear Fire.   

 Clucking good signage. My sister gifted me with this new sign and after I cleaned the coop last week for the winter season it has a home. Not a gate but it works. 

Let us take a look at what the Lil' Dude Marmalade is up to. 

Sleeping

Sleeping

Sleeping 

Pretty much yup. I must say he is the most incredibly creative sleeping cat I have ever seen. He does get out of his X pen several times a day. He sits on the porch with me, on the sofa with me and also does garden and chicken checks with me. But because he is not neutered yet until that day (Oct. 14th) I cannot give him free range . Open doors pose problems with a loose cat around . Especially as fast as this one is. 

Last but not least Fall planting began. I planted kale, spinach , assortment of salad lettuce, beans, peas and lastly radishes. The photo is of the bean planting and each row of anything planted got a nice layer of finely crushed egg shell to grow on.  I keep my shells and ever so often when I have enough I run them through my Cuisinart to use in the garden in some manner.  I still have one tomato plant Indigo Rose , herbs, a lingering honeydew maturing and a pepper plant that took forever to go from seed to mature. Now it has multiple small white flowers on it and we shall see. I don't give up easily so no harm no foul .